Weary. That single word captures the last two years. Losses piled upon losses as creation claws its way out of a worldwide event that has left many of us weary right down to the bones.
It’s with worn and troubled hearts that we enter the holiday season. We are exhausted souls. We are determined to celebrate amid desperate circumstances, believing there’s peace in the hardship because that is the message of Christmas. Christ comes for the broken and weary.
That’s why the books in the Mistletoe Meadows Anthology tackle deep themes of what it means to offer sacrifices of praise to the God who gives and takes away. The stories stir all of the warm and fuzzy holiday feelings we love but also dig into the issues pressing the air from our lungs—issues about survival, hardship, and suffering while not growing weary of doing good (Gal 6:9). These stories are not about making the hard seem jolly and bright. They are about a victory secured on our behalf, hope in the hardship, and joy in the suffering.
It’s my prayer that the Mistletoe Meadows Anthology will lead us to rejoice because God made a way through our soul-crushing brokenness. Christmas proves that God knows about our greatest need. Christmas makes a way out from under the heap of wrath poured onto all sinners. Christmas is our way through.
God rips open the heavens, and the angels proclaim that salvation has come. The flesh-wrapped Deity bears the brokenness suffocating you and me. He pieces us back together with His perfection. He doesn’t always change our circumstances, but He always changes us. Christ has come, and He invites us to follow Him from the manger all the way to the cross—where a weary world can finally lay its burden down.
Stacey
Stacey is a ministry wife, mother of three teenagers, and a sipper of hot tea with honey. She loves to open the Word of God and share the hope of Christ with women. She is a multi-award-winning author, the primary home-educator of her children, and a frequent conference speaker. Her messages have been described as rich in the truths of Scripture, gospel-infused, and life-changing. Stacey has a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Ministry with Heritage College and Seminary and is working on a Certificate in Biblical Counselling.
